Economics

Unemployment responses to 'skill-biased' technology shocks: the role of labour market policy

Article Abstract:

The role played by labor policy in the large increase in unemployment rates in Europe and the US in the late 1970s and the 1980s were reexamined based on the interpretation of the Mortensen and Pissarides model of equilibrium unemployment framework on the employment and wage experience of OECD members. The research suggests that much of the differential changes in unemployment rates in both countries are attributable to the skill-biased technology shocks that cause the rise in labor productivities that are interacting with various policies.

Qualifying for unemployment insurance: an empirical analysis

Article Abstract:

A 1990 incidental experiment in Canada's unemployment insurance (UI) program determined the effects of UI entrance requirement (ER) on employment duration distribution. Simple empirical hazard estimates and duration model estimates indicate that ER has a major effect on employment durations. Most of the employment durations, ending on or just after the 1989 qualifying term, were prolonged to not less than 14 weeks in 1990.

On the performance of social benefit systems

Article Abstract:

Alternatives to the traditional flat-rate and earnings-related unemployment benefit systems were analyzed using income inequality and poverty reduction as criteria. The resulting compromise between poverty reduction and the efficiency of work incentives were also examined.